Insights

Posted on Tuesday, August 25, 2015 2:18 PM

A three judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals announced its decision to overrule a federal District Court for the District of Columbia decision by Judge Richard J. Leon in a suit brought by NAHC, the International Franchise Association and others. In that decision, Judge Leon criticized the Department of Labor (DOL), which in amending the overtime rules applicable to home health workers, had taken the step of "abolishing certain consumer protections that have been part of the law and regulations for the past 35 years."
Judge Leon put his insightful opinion in writing:

“Millions of American families each day struggle financially to care for their loved ones who are either too elderly or infirm to care for themselves. Congress is now, and has been, keenly aware of that struggle for many decades. Indeed, as the baby-boomer generation gets older, that struggle will be shared by an ever-increasing number of families. The exemption Congress has provided third-party employers and individual families with respect to minimum and overtime wages has been, and is, a central component of Congress’s effort to insure that as many of those families as possible will be able to survive that struggle.”

“Redefining a 40-year old exemption out of existence may be satisfyingly efficient to the Department of Labor, but it strikes at the heart of the balance of power our Founding Fathers intended to rest in the hands of those who must face the electorate on a regular basis.”

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